Internet/Phone HELP! - Montana Owners Club

Bill Hill · 11-14-2006, 03:15 AM

We are full-timing as of last Thursday, so we no longer have a land-line phone. Our internet was DSL through SBC. We haven't cancelled the phone number yet so we still have access, but need to make a change. Our cell phone service is Cingular.

Does anyone have experience with using cell phone access to the internet? Is it possible to keep our existing e-mail addresses when switching to a new ISP? Appreciate any thoughts.

BH

ols1932 · 11-14-2006, 03:27 AM

Many people use their Cingular, Sprint, Verizon cell phones. It's MUCH slower than your previous DSL but does work. We've been full timing for over six years and have used our Verizon phone to surf the Internet, get our e-mail and my wife maintains several church websites using her phone. We connect to Wi-Fi where available and connect to landline when parked next to her uncle's place in Victorville, CA.

As for keeping your e-mail addresses when switching ISPs, I don't believe that is possible. I know there is presently an advertisement on TV saying that AOL will allow you to keep your AOL address when you switch to their company. I don't remember which company that is. Someone else will be along, I'm sure, to give you additional (and possibly corrective) information concerning this.

Orv

Mrs. CountryGuy · 11-14-2006, 03:46 AM

Also use cell phone via Mobile Suites (or something like that) from Verizon, but not sure that is available any more, you would probably be happier with the aircard, get a router, and you can both surf at the same time, and it works pretty fast. Downside, aircard is a seperate service, more bills to pay. Is it worth it?? If we were fulltiming we would have it! Period!

Like Orv, use land line when that is all that is available, maintain a AOL account for that. (remembering we are long timers now, good chance we would drop if fulltiming)

Like Orv, use wireless when available at campgrounds.

Do not believe you can morf over your email addy. Strongly suggest the use of web mail accounts for that, yahoo and gmail and hot mail accounts, work very well, and no matter how you are getting on the internet, you can use em, even in public libraries. Believe you can do that at AOL.COM as well now, check it out.

Montana_3380 · 11-14-2006, 03:55 AM

Hi y'all. Congratulations on your launch!
We have Cingular service on our cell phone and cingular data service. Both are unlimited. We get good reception on the road and in most areas we have visited. Exceptions are Minnesota bluff country and some Washington shore areas. It can be maddeningly slow when you're used to DSL but hey, look at the view out that window!

You can choose the level of service with data just as you can with the phone. You buy a card for your laptop that goes in the NIC slot.
You can't keep your e-mail address because it has the name of the service as part of it. You might be able to set up the same handle on Yahoo or something but it would then be you@yahoo.com.
I'm not at all happy with local wifi options on the road. I'm concerned that the security is necessarily less useful. We have picked up local wifi once in an area where Cingular wasn't strong enough. The card picked it up fine.
Good luck and happy traveling!
Jin

Bill Hill · 11-14-2006, 05:49 AM

Thanks for the responses. I found out that I'm able to cancel my DSL service and phone line but keep my internet service as dial-up. By doing that we can get access from any modem or wi-fi. Also, we'll still be able to access from work since were still stuck on the job for another 128 days.

Parrothead · 11-14-2006, 05:55 AM

I use Verizon's Mobile Office if I can't get WiFi. Only a few of their phones are capable of this. So when we recently got new phones I had to watch for that service. Our email is an MSN account so I have no problem accessing it. Even did it when we were on the cruises. I have a new Dell laptop that can't use the regular cards, it has the new "Express Card" slot. So far there aren't many Express Cards available. Hopefully by the time we go full time, I'll have some options.
Happy trails..........................

Chuck and Carol · 11-14-2006, 06:38 AM

I also have verizons mobile office. Here at home I have Time Warner broadband. Just found out from AOL if I want to continue using my cell phone I have to subscribe to one of their dial up services.

Carol

Wannabe Full-timer · 11-14-2006, 07:12 AM

If you want to use Verizon and you have a newer laptop with the new ExpressCard slot (rather than a PC card slot), you can get an EVDO connection/high speed Internet (400-700 Kbps) in major cities and National Access (50-100 Kbps) in other localities as long as you can get service. That is all I can get on my laptop where I live in my rural area at this time but the network is expanding all the time. My connection rate is about twice as fast as dial-up for me. It is $59.99/month unlimited access for National Access and $79.99/month for unlimited EVDO. You will also get an additional $20 off/month if you have cell phone service through them which is really nice for your full-timers, so you could actually get unlimited EVDO for $59.99/month or National Access for $39.99 plus whatever you monthly cell phone pkg. would cost.

Another option for the same type of service is through Sprint with a USB Modem that plugs into a USB port and the nice thing about this is that you can plug it into a laptop or a regular PC via a USB port on a computer. I tried it but Sprint's signal strength is so low where I live I couldn't use it. Of note, the Sprint USB Modem costs considerably more than the Verizon ExpressCard but their monthly rate is cheaper for unlimited access. (To note also, it has been my experience that most of the cell phone stores know next to nothing about these new devices and/or don't even have them in their stores yet).

The reason I mention both of these is because it is my understanding PCMCIA cards/slots will be obsolete eventually and those that may invest money in obtaining them perhaps could find that they no longer can use them in the not so distant future (I don't know that but I have heard that). You can get a lot more info from Booster-Antenna.com and they explain all the various options and they have really good customer support (which I learned about here on this forum).

As I mentioned, I had dial-up with a local ISP and found out I could keep my E-mail address through them for $40 a year when I asked them about it and I chose to do that as the type of card/plan I have with Verizon does not offer an E-mail address (which I think is ridiculous). I also have had a backup E-mail address for years through Yahoo which is free and I have been happy with it but I wanted to keep my regular ISP E-mail address due to my at-home business, etc.

I hope you find something that really suits your needs and will be pleased with.

richfaa · 11-15-2006, 01:25 AM

We have cingular for our cell service and investigation has shown that verison is, right now, state of the art in air cards, etc so we will swith to verison. For our phone service/DSL service We have alltel.net (now windstream.net . We can put our phone service on 'Vacation"and we can keep our E mail address while the phone/DSL is on vacation..It took talking to a number of folks at Alltel till we found one who knew it could be done.. I knew it could be done,,just had to find someone in Alltel that knew. We have however decided to go with verison 100%,,Drop the phone servive and DSL service with Alltel(windstream).It will mean a new E mail address since we are dropping the alltel service ,,but so what.It will actually cost us a few bucks less to go with verison/aircard. A router will allow more tha one PC..

Dont · 11-15-2006, 02:40 AM

Hi we hace a verizon cell phone and a dell lap top so we got a verizon air card, the card cost $99.00 and $59.00 for service we got when we left Iowa and we are in San Antoino and heading for Apache Junction Az and it has work great so far.

Dont · 11-15-2006, 02:41 AM

Hi we have a verizon cell phone and a dell lap top so we got a verizon air card, the card cost $99.00 and $59.00 for service we got when we left Iowa and we are in San Antoino and heading for Apache Junction Az and it has work great so far.

richfaa · 11-20-2006, 10:41 AM

Learning from the experience of forum members and after a long talk with a tech at Booster-Antenna .com we ordered today the Verison KPC 650 EVDO PC card. The KR1 Router and the KCP 650 Omni Directional external Antenna.It was not a cheap buy but a needed tool when on the road as much as we will be. We will dump our Home phone and DSl the 1st of December and will come out about 10/15.00 ahead on the monthly service charge. We kept our personal Cingular cell service because we have 1000 anytime mins with roll over for 35.00 per month and that is hard to beat. Our Lap top will support both the New Express card and the PC card but the tech advised us to go with the PC 650 EVDO card as the best setup at this time.. We are closer and closer to Long timing.

snfexpress · 11-25-2006, 06:19 PM

Rich, I have the KR1 as well and have found that if I am in an area that the Aircard cannot connect, like Lake Havasu City, the KR1 will drop the WLAN (wifi part) rather frequently. My solution was to get a D-Link DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router and turn off the wifi in the KR1.

I have alot of experience with the KR1 and computers, in general, so feel free to ask.

Sandymom · 11-26-2006, 08:09 AM

Mike,

Do you have any experience using the KR1 to access remote systems using Microsoft's VPN? I'm planning on checking with the Booster-Antenna folks this week, but I've heard that it may present problems.

Mike

snfexpress · 11-26-2006, 10:19 AM

Sandymom,

Microsoft's VPN is inherently easily hacked, so I wouldn't recommend M$. If your company uses Cisco 3002 hardware VPN on port 10000, and you use the Cisco client, I understand that the KR1 will work.

Why do you want VPN? Another, more elegant solution is to use RDP (Terminal Services). My company uses TS to connect our various offices to our servers in our main office. The idea that you can log into a TS session from any RDP client and always have your own desktop is a plus along with the fact that at 1xRTT speeds, you will notice a delay, but is workable unlike a VPN session where the data instead of just the screen pixels must be transferred back and forth over the Inet.

If you tell me a little bit more about your requirements, and your IT's willingness to accomodate your requests, I could suggest some alternatives.

Booster-Antenna recommends the Top Global 3G Phoebus MB6000 3G EVDO Router for VPN use. The price is $375.00.

So far, the KR1 has met our needs (other than the wifi drop, but we have a reasonable work around). We have the Wilson trucker antenna (no ground plane required) mounted outside our trailer on the bracket for the slide-toppers. Has helped tremendously.

If we cannot get cellular coverage for Inet, then I use campground wifi w/ 2 wireless cards (one internal and one PCMCI external) in my laptop. The cards are bridged so that my wife's laptop can use my wireless cards to get to the Inet and also get to our WLAN (printers, etc.)

I spent considerable time and effort researching the various Inet offerings and technologies before settling on cellular. When I did choose cellular, the KR1 was the only router offered. If I was to do it now, I would get the Top Global 3G Phoebus MB6000 3G EVDO Router. But, it is my contention that cellular EVDO coverage will continue to grow, until handheld satellite devices become the norm for data transer in about 3 to 5 years.

Sorry if I got off topic.

richfaa · 11-26-2006, 12:43 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by snfexpress

Rich, I have the KR1 as well and have found that if I am in an area that the Aircard cannot connect, like Lake Havasu City, the KR1 will drop the WLAN (wifi part) rather frequently. My solution was to get a D-Link DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router and turn off the wifi in the KR1.

I have alot of experience with the KR1 and computers, in general, so feel free to ask.

The verizon KPC-650 card, KR1 Router and the Omi. Directional Trucker antenna was delivered yesterday..have not hooked it up yet.. We will be in Lake Havasu and verizon assured me that broad band coverage was available there and their coverage map indicated that..Did they tell me a lie??? Tell me more about the Dlink DWL-G730Ap..I would normally PM you with this but your replay may be of interest to others.

Sandymom · 11-26-2006, 01:01 PM

Why do you want VPN? Another, more elegant solution is to use RDP (Terminal Services). My company uses TS to connect our various offices to our servers in our main office. The idea that you can log into a TS session from any RDP client and always have your own desktop is a plus along with the fact that at 1xRTT speeds, you will notice a delay, but is workable unlike a VPN session where the data instead of just the screen pixels must be transferred back and forth over the Inet.

If you tell me a little bit more about your requirements, and your IT's willingness to accomodate your requests, I could suggest some alternatives.

Booster-Antenna recommends the Top Global 3G Phoebus MB6000 3G EVDO Router for VPN use. The price is $375.00.

Mike-

Thanks for the great feedback! The only reason I want to use M'soft VPN is requirement by my client. I'm currently doing part-time consulting and that is how they configure external access to the systems that I need to work with. They are a bit constrained for IT support (i.e., almost none), so I need to work around their limitations.

Looks like I'll probably need to pursue the Phoebus router....

Mike

snfexpress · 11-26-2006, 08:31 PM

Rich,

Verizon lied as does their coverage map. We are in an "Extended Service" area that is owned by, I think Mojave something or other cellular and does not carry digital services. Your Aircard, unfortunately, won't work here. One of the reasons I wanted a CG that has wifi for Inet.

The KR1 with rev 1006 firmware is supposed to better about the wifi drops, but many have had problems. The solution is to get another wifi router, in this case the Dlink. Then, turn off the wifi in the KR1.

When you get down here, PM me. We are in Crazy Horse.

Sandymom,

VPN will be rather slow for you. If your client has Windows Server 2000, it can easily be configured for TS and it is free. With WK2003 Server, you must buy a license. Any XP Pro (not Home) or Windows 2000 client also has a free client license to connect to TS.

Given an IP address and about 15 minutes, I could hack your client's VPN. With TS (RDP) it is much harder. I would suggest you ask your client if they have either a Windows 2000 Server machine, or if they could put your work on a Windows XP Pro machine. You can also RDP into an XP Pro machine, but you are limited to one session at a time unlike a server where you can have up to 255 sessions.

As an example, I have various W2K Servers on my network. My employees RDP into one of these servers and they operate the server as if it is their desktop. Multiple employees can RDP into a server at one time. I RDP into my desktop at work, an XP Pro machine. When I RDP into my machine, the screen goes blank and no one can use my desktop (which is what I want). I then use Quickbooks, etc. to get my work done, then disconnect.

HamRad · 11-27-2006, 06:14 AM

I don't know about the air card working in Lake Havasu but I know it works in Quartzsite. We've been using it there for the past 3 years. We stay out north of Q on Plomosa Rd. and have a good to very good signal out there.

HamRad

richfaa · 11-27-2006, 10:53 AM

Just installed our hotspot here at the house.KCP-650 EVDO PC Card and the KR-1 Router. Works fine 586kbps on verizon..Not DSl but will do for on the road ..

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